THE REALLY BIG WARS
Having covered conflicts that didn't involve the two most dangerous aliens in the Universe, we now move into the second section of this essay. In this installment, we will finally take the time to examine a few major battles that have involved either Daleks or Cybermen. It should be noted, of course, that if you didn't catch the first part of this essay, you may want to go check it out in this link: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2021/07/analytical-intergalactic-wars-of-doctor.html. I will be using quite a bit of terminology that may not make much sense to you if you haven't read the first chapter.
It should also be noted that these wars tend to be very large in scope. Both in terms of how big of a toll they had on the Doctor Who Universe and how much content has been created about them.
Wars involving these two races seem to span across a larger portion of space than the ones that were mentioned in Part One. There would also appear to be a greater loss of life in these battles. It would even seem that, quite often, many different alien species become involved in these conflicts. It's not just two simple and distinct "sides" like Draconians and humans or Sontarans and Rutans. Alliances are often forged between several different civilisations. Everything is much larger and complex. They resemble all-the-more the World Wars of the early 20th Century that we've been comparing them to.
At the same time, writers for the show have explored them more deeply. Most of these wars have several stories devoted to them. Aside from the Sontarans and Rutans, Space Wars in Part One of the essay were explored in two tales, at best. Most of the battles involving Daleks or Cybermen are featured in three or more adventures. In general, these conflicts get more attention from production teams.
ANALYSING SOME MORE WARS...
As we dive into analyzing these Great Wars waged by Daleks and Cybermen, we will try to tackle them in chronological order. However, in a show about time travel, "linear" can have a highly subjective definition.
For instance: In The Sontaran Strategem we hear General Staal lamenting the fact that his people were not allowed to fight in the Time Wars. While Sontarans do possess limited time travel capabilities, we're fairly certain this battalion hails from the era they are currently in. They don't come from the future or the past. Which would infer that the Time Wars, themselves, happened sometime around the 21st Century (although, certain things we see in Night of the Doctor might insinuate otherwise. Cass is a clearly human-sounding name but she seems to come from a futuristic society - definitely not from our time period).
However, if we examine the timeline of the Daleks (which I do and you can read about it here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/07/chronologies-and-timelines-episode.html), it seems most likely that the Daleks begin the Time Wars sometime after their exploits in The Dalek Masterplan. This seems the most likely place for it to happen because the Skarosian Mutants have finally reached a level of technological sophistication that would enable them to properly rival the Time Lords. So it's sometime in the 40th Century that the Daleks initiate the Time Wars. The War, itself, may actually still erupt sometime in the early 21st Century. After all, the combatants are all time travellers. But, in terms of Dalek history, it happens much later. So, the big question is: whose timeline are we going by?
The answer is: there is no clear answer. In some instances, I will use the Humanian Timeline. On other occasions, I might go by the chronology of another species. Whichever suits the narrative best.
Okay, then. Let's get to it:
THE FIRST GREAT CYBER WAR
Tomb of the Cybermen
Attack of the Cybermen
Earthshock
Revenge of the Cybermen
As we approach the 26th Century, humanity seems to get into some pretty big scraps. There's the war against the Draconians, of course - which we've mentioned, already. There also seems to be a major skirmish against both the Cybermen and the Daleks. It's difficult to determine the order in which these battles took place. I believe it was the Cybermen first. But there's little to substantiate or disprove my theory. It's more of just a gut instinct.
Both Tomb of the Cybermen and Attack of the Cybermen constitute major Flashpoints for the war in the 26th Century. But it's safe to say that some considerable attrition built up between us a few centuries earlier.
In the late 20th Century and the 21st Century, we had quite a bit of trouble with the Cybermen. There were major incidents like The Invasion and The Tenth Planet. Where the Cybermen led a full frontal assault against us. We also had more subtle attempts at sabotage that transpired in The Moonbase and The Wheel In Space. On top of that, other "schisms" of Cybermen plagued us. Cybermen from an alternate reality briefly attacked us during Army of Ghosts/Doomsday. Missy also built her own special army of Cybermen on 21st Century Earth in Dark Water/Death in Heaven. We even dealt with some time travelling Cybermen in stories like Attack of the Cybermen and Silver Nemesis. Or Cybermen that were accidentally stranded here in a crash from Closing Time.
Basically, we dealt with a lot of Cybermen for a bit!
While we should have, perhaps, led some sort of attack against this race of cyborgs, we were still at a fairly primitive stage of technological development at the time. The Cybermen probably would have beat us back quite badly. We needed to maintain a more defensive position during this era. And, of course, we needed to rely heavily on the Doctor to save us.
Fortunately for us, the Cybermen seemed to be experiencing some sort of resource crisis towards the end of the 21st Century and needed to shut down to conserve energy for a bit. They retreated to Telos. Sealing themselves into cryogenic suspension, they disappeared from the Universe. We were safe for a while.
But then a group of curious archaeologists went to Telos to investigate them. This ended up opening a huge can of worms and became the first major Flashpoint in a Great War that was to come. It should be noted that the Cybermen located near the surface of Telos left a whole series of logic codes that could only be assailed by humans that had reached a certain level of intellectual sophistication. When they were revived, the Cybercontroller stated outright that they were waiting for Humanity to be more suitable for conversion. That opening up the Tomb could only be accomplished by humans that were being governed more greatly by logic than emotion. If human nature had not evolved in such a direction as to produce something like the Brotherhood of Logicians, the Cybermen probably would have never been awakened. Essentially, we set in motion the First Great Cyber War. This Flashpoint would never have occurred if we had just left the Tomb of the Cybermen alone.
The Tombs were re-sealed by the end of that fateful expedition. But it was still made clear to the Cybermen that humanity was now ripe for conversion. Attack of the Cybermen represents a second Flashpoint as it shows the Cybermen truly marshalling themselves for a campaign of conquest. One that seems to be focused on Earth. Especially since they were making an effort to alter the Web of Time by destroying the Earth in 1985.
Earthshock sits in one of those grey areas where we could consider it one more Flashpoint or even a First Shot. Leading a legitimate assault on an Alliance that is being assembled to destroy you does certainly resemble some actual combat. A bomb was planted on the Earth and an army was being smuggled to the planet to mop up anyone that survived the bomb. That does, sort of, constitute some First Shots if you want to see it as that.
(This, by the way, is a prime example of me using the Humanian Time Line. I do believe this particular group of Cybermen are time travellers who hail from the future. To get a better explanation of this, click on this link: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of_27.html)
Thus far, no stories have been made that illustrate Actual Fighting or Final Shots. But we do get Revenge of the Cybermen telling us about the Aftermath. The Cybermen's weakness to gold is exploited and they are nearly completely wiped out. There is, of course, a vague attempt in this particular tale to resurrect their power and embark upon a new campaign of conquest but the Doctor is able to nip that in the bud.
I mentioned earlier how these wars often involve several different races. The First Great Cyber War exemplifies this nicely. We get the impression from Earthshock that humans and other aliens are uniting together to fight the Cybermen. And Revenge definitely shows us that the Vogans were heavily involved in the conflict.
THE FIRST GREAT DALEK WAR
Frontier In Space
Planet of the Daleks
Death to the Daleks
A short while after the First Great Cyber-War concludes, there's a diplomatic misunderstanding between Earth and the Draconian Empire that causes a massive battle. It does seem to rage on for a few years but not, necessarily, too long. Many of the characters in Frontier In Space were alive when it was going on but the war seems to have only taken up a few years of their lives.
Frontier In Space, as specified in Part One of this essay, represents a Nexus Point. It sorts out the Aftermath of the Earth/Draconian conflict but it is also a Flashpoint in the First Great Dalek War. Working with the Master, the Kaled Mutant Cyborgs are attempting to instigate a second war between the humans and Draconia. Hoping to weaken both empires and make them easy to conquer. The fact that the Doctor helps uncover the truth of things has, more than likely, galvanised all the different forces that would be involved in the war-to-come with the Daleks.
Naturally, Planet of the Daleks is a second Flashpoint. Frontier flows right into it by whisking the Doctor off to deal with a huge army the Daleks have built up to help them in their campaign. Greater proof is unveiled about the desire of these intergalactic conquerors to engage in combat with Earth. Again, we can make some assumptions, here. The Thals probably revealed what was transpiring on Spiridon to Earth Authorities. More than likely, this spurred humanity on to do something about the Dalek Menace before it became too great of a threat.
Like the First Cyber War, we still haven't gotten any Actual Fighting or Final Shots for this conflict. Perhaps a story will be made someday that illustrates this. But, until then, we must go to the Aftermath that is displayed in Death to the Daleks.
While the Cybermen appear to be, more or less, wiped out by the end of their engagement against humanity, the Daleks seem in a position that is more similar to the Draconians. Territories get marked out and opposing forces stay out of each others' way. Much of this is explained during Pertwee's final outing against the Daleks. The events of the war are fresh in the memories of everyone so we learn a lot of Aftermath through backstory dialogue.
This is probably another example that re-inforces the "more than just two sides" concept that I have mentioned. As I'm quite sure that, at the very least, the Draconians probably fought in this war alongside the Earth. After learning of the Dalek plot to drive a wedge between them and humanity, the Draconians would feel honor-bound to assist in the campaign to take down the evil Skarosians.
THE DALEK/MOVELLAN WAR
Destiny of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks
(and, for an interesting clue that indicates a possible second war, watch that bit near the end of The Pilot)
For a time, the Daleks seem to leave humanity alone. This is because they get distracted by other enemies. In some cases, one could even say Greater Foes.
As the 27th Century progresses, they enter into a most peculiar battle with the Movellans. This is a very similar race to the Daleks. They, too, depend heavily on logic to govern their decisions. Oftentimes oblivious to the ideas of emotion or intuition. This, of course, created a gigantic stalemate between the two opponents. Because of the logic-based strategy used by both armies, each battle computer could easily sort out the enemy's next move and counter it. Not a single shot was fired as two massive spacefleets hung in space, squaring off with each other.
In this instance, we see no Flashpoints or First Shots. In some ways, Actual Fighting is going on as Destiny of the Daleks begins. But, at the same time, we almost have to say Actual Fighting isn't really going on!
Resurrection of the Daleks not only deals with the Aftermath, it also mentions what the Final Shots of the war were. Once more, through the use of backstory, we learn that the Movellans managed to develop a virus that exclusively attacks Daleks and unleashed it upon them.
Shortly after the disease was released, the war ended and we moved into the Aftermath stage. The Daleks scattered to the Four Corners of the Universe to prevent the spreading of infection and work on a cure. In some ways, they seem to disappear for a while in the same manner the Cybermen have on several occasions. They only cause their presence to be felt again by humanity when they attempt to break Davros out of prison in hopes that he can find a way to conquer the virus.
Resurrection of the Daleks doesn't just provide us with the Final Shots and Aftermath of the Dalek/Movellan War. It is another Nexus Point. As I do believe it also has role to play in the Time Wars.
We should probably also mention that all-too-brief Movellan cameo in The Pilot. I don't actually think that it's a snippet of Actual Fighting from this particular war. I believe it to be from a second battle that takes place between the Daleks and the Movellans sometime after the Time Wars. I explain my reasoning more thoroughly here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/03/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
SECOND GREAT CYBER WAR
The Haunting of Villa Diodati/Ascension of the Cybermen/The Timeless Children
Nightmare in Silver
We have just one more conflict that develops before the Great Time Wars. By my reckoning, it's sometime around the 31st Century. Although some of it's Aftermath Story is much later...
The Second Great Cyber War seems to have no stories, thus far, involving Flashpoints, First Shots or even a lot of Actual Fighting. Things seem to start in the Aftermath. The Final Shots have even been fired as the events of Villa Diodati/Ascension/Timeless occur. After the destruction of the Tiberian Spiral Galaxy, the Lone Cybermen still remains intact. With the help of a few other surviving Cybermen and some drones, he is searching out any surviving humans from the conflict. He also goes back in time to retrieve the Cyberium. All of this is done so that the Cybermen can rise again.
It is Nightmare in Silver, however, that gives us a much better idea of the Aftermath of this Second Great Cyber War. This story, technically, takes place a good 1000 years after the war ended and contains quite the info-dump on how it concluded. It is yet another attempt by the Cybermen to rise from their own ashes. This time, they are using the Cyberiad to do this. Which is probably an offshoot of the Cyberium. I have another link that explains this all better: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/06/chronologies-and-timelines-appendixes.html
THE TIME WARS
Genesis of the Daleks
Resurrection of the Daleks
Remembrance of the Daleks
Night of the Doctor
The End of Time - Parts One and Two
Day of the Doctor
Rose
The End of the World
Unquiet Dead
Dalek
Time of the Doctor
Optional:
Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways
Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
Utopia/Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords
The Stolen Earth/Journey's End
and, maybe, even a little bit of Doctor Who: The Movie
The Sontaran/Rutan Conflict is, most likely, the longest-running war in Intergalactic History. But the Time Wars, it would seem, were still the biggest. The wars appear to have done tremendous damage to Time and Space. At one point, many believed that the entire Universe would get wiped out by the battle.
While the War seemed to mainly be between Daleks and Time Lords, other forces were also involved. Strange armies like the Horde of Travesties and even bizarre beings like the Nightmare Child participated in it. And it also takes place in some unique location that seemed to be almost outside of Time and Space, itself. This odd Corner of Creation was also under a Time Lock. This forbade time travellers outside of the Wars to enter it. It also trapped the participants of the War inside it. As isolated as the War was, though, there did seem to be all kinds of Fallout from it that was damaging the cosmos beyond it.
There are several stories that I would consider Flashpoints that led to the War. The first is one many fans believe was responsible for getting the whole thing started. In Genesis of the Daleks, the Time Lords seemed to have glimpsed a terrible future where the Daleks are the dominant life form of the Universe. Might this have been a Matrix Prediction that showed the Time Wars concluding with the Daleks victorious? Fearful of this Prophecy, the Time Lords try sending the Doctor to the very origins of the Daleks to prevent the terrible event from happening. Some fans do believe that the Daleks did, eventually, discover that the Time Lords tried to curtail their creation and that this is what initially put Gallifrey in their cross-hairs. That the Daleks decided they must become sufficiently advanced to take down the Time Lords. Which would make Genesis a gigantic Flashpoint.
Resurrection of the Daleks becomes the next Flashpoint. The Daleks decide to be a bit ironic. Since the Time Lords used the Doctor to try to wipe them out, they now try to use the Doctor to send a crippling blow back. An attempt is made to duplicate the Doctor and use him as an assassin against the High Council. This seems to be the first time we see the Daleks trying to strike at Gallifrey. One might even call it an attempted First Shot that failed. Resurrection, of course, is also a Nexus Point. As it deals with both the Time Wars and the Aftermath of Dalek/Movellan conflict.
Finally, we have Remembrance of the Daleks. Daleks are trying to steal a super-weapon of the Time Lords to use against them. The Doctor is attempting to commit some low-key genocide by wiping out Skaro's entire solar system. If that doesn't say: "Major Flashpoints", I don't know what does!
Then we get into some Actual Fighting with Night of the Doctor. The usual trick is employed. The Great Battle appears to be taking place somewhere off-camera and only gets discussed. But we do bear witness to the most pivotal point in the Time Wars: the Doctor, at last, decides to get involved.
The End of Time and Day of the Doctor take place during the Final Shots of the Time Wars. In fact, we get to see the final conclusion as Daleks accidentally dice themselves in their own cross-fire and Gallifrey is sealed in a stasis cube. The Doctor, of course, believes that he has used the Moment to wipe out both forces. And continues to believe this for quite some time. Only as Eleven nears his end does he learn the truth of things.
Rose, The End of the World and The Unquiet Dead all highlight important aspects of the Time Wars' Aftermath. Rose shows devastation that was caused on both a cosmic scale and as a personal impact on the Doctor. We learn that the Nestene Consciousness lost its Protein Planets during the War and has turned to Earth, again, for sustenance. We also hear some considerable pain in the Doctor's voice as he explains that he tried to contain the effects of the Time Wars but failed.
End of the World continues to explore the personal damage the War has done to the Doctor. We even see him shedding a tear as Jabe tells him she knows who he really is. By the end of the story, he confesses to Rose that he is the last of his kind and gives her a very strong idea of how he feels about that. Clearly, he is in the deepest pit of depression as he tells her of the Time Wars.
Unquiet Dead displays another effect of the Aftermath of the Time Wars has had on the surrounding Universe. In this case, the Gelth appear to have also suffered some sort of near-fatal damage from the conflict. In an attempt to survive, they slip through a Time Rift and try to invade the Earth.
For a few episodes after that, Series One tends to stay away from showing the Aftermath of the Time Wars. But then we get to Dalek. I would actually be more prone to saying that this is a story about Fallout rather than Aftermath. A Dalek is forcibly ejected from the Time Wars and causes some major trouble on Earth. We do seem to see a single Dalek spinning out of control at the end of Day of the Doctor as the Daleks destroy themselves after Gallifrey disappears. I'm guessing that is the Dalek we'll see in VanStatten's bunker in 2012.
Finally, there's Time of the Doctor. Another Aftermath story that shows where Gallifrey ended up after it escaped the Time Wars and what kind of effect its return to our Universe had. It's also a bit of a Nexus Point. As I'll explain in a bit.
I do list quite a few "optional" stories to watch. They are mainly the Season Finales of the RTD era. They deal ever-so-vaguely with the Aftermath of the Time Wars. They do seem a bit like Fallout stories but I wouldn't really call them that. To me, a Fallout story involves warriors that were forcibly ejected from a war. These are beings that found their way out of the Time Lock and back into our own Universe. There's a bit of a difference, there. However, I do still recommend watching these stories as there is a considerable amount of expository dialogue in them that gives us a better idea of how the Time Wars played out.
Finally, the first minute or two of Doctor Who - The Movie almost, sort of, qualifies as a bit of a Flashpoint. Some sort of mild treaty seems to have been struck between the Daleks and the Time Lords to handle the Trial of the Master. However, it seems like the terms of the treaty get pretty badly violated as the Master goes on to try take over the Doctor's body and nearly destroy the Earth in the process.
That, to the best of my knowledge, is everything you can watch that deals directly with the Time Wars.
SECOND GREAT DALEK WAR
Victory of the Daleks
a brief snippet of The Wedding of River Song
Into the Dalek
Time of the Doctor
While the Time Wars do seem to take place in a sort of "Timeless Place", I do estimate that the Daleks join battle with the Time Lords sometime shortly after The Dalek Masterplan. Which takes place in the 40th Century.
There is, at least, one major conflict that occurs after this date. So I consider it a Post Time-War Event. Once more, it's about the Daleks fighting humans.
Not to be outdone by the Cybermen, the Daleks also attempt a second war against Earth. It begins when a small group of time-travelling Daleks that survived either Parting of the Ways or Journey's End get their hands on an old Progenitor and see it as an opportunity to re-build their empire. There are some complications to re-activating the device which leads them to constructing a complicated trap for the Doctor to confirm their identity for them in Victory of the Daleks. This story, to me, is a major Flashpoint in the Second Great Dalek War. As it presents the moment where the Daleks can re-build themselves into a formidable army. Not a force as great as the ones we saw in Parting Ways or Journey's End. But still dangerous enough.
After interfering a bit with World War II, the Daleks do return to their appropriate time (sometime after Dalek Masterplan) and decide to wage a second war against humanity.
We see the briefest bit of Actual Fighting near the beginning of The Wedding of River Song. The Doctor approaches a damaged Dalek from a battle during what I presume to be the Second Great Dalek War and steals its data core.
Into the Dalek shows us a considerable amount of Actual Fighting. The first few minutes display a moment of rarely-seen actual space battle as Colonel Blue and her brother try to escape a pursuing Dalek saucer. There is also quite the battle at the end of the story as the Daleks board the human medical vessel. It is interesting to note that the humans don't seem to be doing well in this war. In fact, the Daleks might actually be winning. We get the impression that we will eventually triumph in this conflict as there are plenty of Future Earth Stories that take place later in the timescale that don't seem to involve us being dominated by the Daleks. We just haven't seen how we get out of this one, yet.
I do like to include Time of the Doctor as part of the Second Great Dalek War. I think it happened as the war was going on but was a Side Campaign. While they were still fighting humanity, some of the Dalek forces branched off to investigate and conquer Trenzalore. They knew that the Time Lords could not return to our Universe. If they did, it would represent a war on two fronts. One against humanity. Another against Time Lords. It was a war the Daleks couldn't win. So this was a very important Side Campaign. It also makes Time of the Doctor another Nexus Point. As the story also conveys some important Aftermath in the Time Wars.
That, to the best of my knowledge, represents all the Interstellar Wars we've seen in Doctor Who. You may have noticed I am now using the term "Interstellar" rather than "Intergalactic". This is because it was pointed out to me by a reader that "Intergalactic" is a bit of a misnomer. It would be near-impossible to wage wars across entire galaxies. While some may consider such a correction massively pedantic, I still can't argue with it.
There have been quite a few ANALYTICAL essays of late. I may veer away from them for a bit. More than likely, I'll polarize and write a few opinion pieces. I have a "doozy" that I've been working on. It may even spark some legitimate controversy.
We'll see if I get the courage to post it....
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